Uncluttering, hoarding, and cleaning house

Column by Michael Norton

Posted
Wednesday, June 19, 2013 4:56 pm

A little over a month ago we had a garage sale at my home. We had been preparing for it for several months, actually ever since our last garage sale. We went through the closets, the storage spaces, the crawl space, the basement and the garage looking for everything we could possibly sell or donate.

So as we got closer to the actual day of the garage sale, my garage could have easily been mistaken as the garage of a hoarder as it was completely filled. And filled with stuff that I have no idea where it came from or that we even had any longer. Where does it all come from?

Anyway, the garage sale was a success and whatever wasn't sold was taken to Goodwill. My garage was once again cleaned out and the producers of that television show about hoarding stopped calling my home.

Well, then we decided to put my home on the market and try and sell it. We had the Realtor and the professional “stager” come and let us know what we needed to do to get the house in shape for pictures and for showings. Now keep in mind, we had just uncluttered the house and got rid of a ton of stuff. Only to now be told that we would have to unclutter even more to make the home more appealing.

We worked for days, filled more bins, and now my garage can once again qualify as a disaster area or hoarder's paradise.

As we went through these days of uncluttering after having already uncluttered, I found myself wondering how much “stuff” I was still holding onto in my head and in my heart that could use a little more uncluttering. I mean I pretty much practice goal-setting and when I complete a project or task I move on to the pursuit of the next thing that I need to tackle. That's the easy part.

But what about the missed opportunities, the losses, the wins or trophies of yesterday that have long since held any relevance? What about the arguments or disagreements that happened so long ago that they no longer carry any meaning? As I thought about and worked on uncluttering the physical items in my home, I began multi-tasking and uncluttering the things that were taking up space in the most important parts of my being, my head and my heart.

If you feel like you are holding on to things mentally, emotionally, or physically, maybe even to the point of hoarding, do yourself a favor and clean house. Start uncluttering and removing the unnecessary, opening up opportunities to spend more time with the people and on those things in life that are truly the most important to us.

If you know what I am talking about, I would love to hear all about how you have uncluttered and cleaned house in your own homes, hearts and minds at gotonorton@gmail.com. When we can start fresh, it will be a better than good week.

Michael Norton, a resident of Highlands Ranch, is the former president of the Zig Ziglar organization and CEO and founder of www.candogo.com